April 2, 2012 12:37 pm

A security breach reported last week concerning information related to credit cards may not have been as critical as first feared.

Atlanta-based Global Payments Inc., which processes transactions for Visa and Mastercard, had reported that some customer information may have hacked.

On Monday, spokesman Jeremy Lushene of the state Department of Financial Institutions said it appears that the breach did not include customer Social Security numbers.

Global Payments Inc. said in a press release Sunday that the “unauthorized access onto its processing system” was limited to North America and that fewer than 1.5 million cardholders were affected.

“Cardholder names, addresses and Social Security numbers were not obtained by the criminals,” the company said.

The incident, it proclaimed, is now :”contained.”

Still, Lushene warned consumers to be vigilant.

“We recommend that people check their account statements,” he said. “If there is fraud, contact your bank or credit union right away to dispute any charges. Also check your credit reports, and alert the credit-reporting company right away” if you note a problem.

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